Dead Zone Extended Edition
by BansheeFromHell
Summary: When Nikki leaves the castle to save her family and friends from a nasty fate, Axel and the others take it upon themselves to go look for her. But what will they do when the zombies come? Rated M for violence, gore, and swearing.
1. Prologue

**Banshee: Hello everyone! This is for everyone that read 'Dead Zone.' I have decided to make an EXTENDED EDITION! Yay! Just like the title implies, this version of 'Dead Zone' is longer. Some parts of the original are still intact. The first two chapters have more old stuff than new stuff, but there will be more new stuff as it goes on. Everybody got that? Okay good. On with the show!**

**Disclaimer: I only own my OCs and the plot.**

* * *

Prologue

* * *

They said it could never happen.

They said the dead could never come back to life.

Well they were dead wrong; emphasis on 'dead.' Dead with a capital 'D.' You get the picture.

It came out of nowhere. It was the biggest epidemic in human history. As usual, it started with one, and one was all it took. Soon it overtook the entire world. Seventy percent of the human race was turned into flesh-eating monsters while the other thirty percent either fought, ran, died, or were turned themselves. She hoped her family was part of the thirty percent; the part of the thirty that was infection-free.

…

- A Day Earlier -

…

"Hi Mom." Nikki greeted when her mother opened the door.

"Nikki, honey!" Cathy cooed as she hugged her. "It's so good to see you. Come in, come in."

She escorted her daughter and her strange portal-making pet into the house and into the kitchen, where there was a plate of fresh cookies waiting on the table. The two sat down and had one of their famous five hour long chats. During their chat, Nikki saw that her father wasn't home; which was unusual since he was usually home by now.

"Where's Dad?" Nikki asked suddenly.

"He's working overtime at the station. He's been out on the job since they called him last night. There were a couple murders last night, and they've been working round the clock investigating."

"Murders?" Nikki asked. "Here? That's unusual. Did Dad give you any of the details?"

"You know how your father is, Nikki." Cathy said. "He doesn't bring his work home with him."

"Maybe the news will tell us something." Nikki said.

She turned on the little TV that sat on the counter, tuning it to the news station.

"_There are still no leads on last night's mysterious murders. The locations of the victim's bodies are still a mystery, as is the identity of the murderer. The lack of evidence has left the police baffled. Is our quiet island town caught in the grip of a serial killer? The chief of police has prepared a statement for the press."_

The video cut to the police chief, who was standing at a podium set up in front of the police station, surrounded by microphones, reporters and camera crews.

"_At this time, we still do not have any leads to either of the murders. The murder weapon and the victims' bodies have yet to recovered, and we still do not have a suspect. But rest assured, we have every officer working around the clock to catch the scoundrel responsible. Until then, we advise everyone to stay indoors and keep your doors and windows locked. If you see anything suspicious, notify the proper authorities immediately."_

"Well that didn't help." Nikki grumbled, turning the TV off.

Cathy gasped. "A serial killer? Oh my…"

"Don't buy into the media hype, Mom. They're just trying to scare everybody by blowing it out of proportion. Serial killer, my ass."

"Nicole!" Cathy scolded. "You know I don't like it when you talk like that."

Her scolding was interrupted when the phone suddenly rang. Cathy walked over to the phone and picked it up, and said, "Hello?"

[["Catherine?"]] Ray's voice said from the other end. He sounded frantic.

"Oh, Ray!"

[["Are you home?"]] He asked.

"Yes, of course I'm home." Ray sighed in relief; at what, though, she didn't know. "Nikki came by for a visit."

[["Oh really? Tell her I said 'hello.'"]]

Cathy turned to Nikki. "Your Dad says 'hello.'"

"Hi Dad!" Nikki called out.

[["Listen, Catherine. I've been investigating those murders all day, and something's definitely not right. I want you and Nikki to stay in the house, and don't answer the door for anyone, do you understand?"]]

Cathy raised an eyebrow. "Don't leave the house? But I promised the girls I'd go out and play keno with them tonight."

[["No!"]] Ray barked. He immediately composed himself and pleaded, [["Please, Catherine, just trust me and stay in the house. I have a very bad feeling about all of this.."]]

She paused for a few seconds. "… All right. I understand. I'll see you when you get home."

With that, they both hung up.

"What was that all about?" Nikki asked.

"I don't know." Her mother said. "He just kept telling me to stay in the house and not answer the door. He sounded scared… that is so unlike him.. And the worst part is, he didn't explain why.."

"Maybe it's the murders." Nikki reasoned. "The murderer _is_ still on the loose. He's probably just worried about us."

"You're probably right." Cathy agreed. "But still, he said he had a 'very bad feeling' about all of this.. I wonder what it means.."

…

- Present -

…

The very next day, it seemed like all Hell broke loose. People were attacked in their beds while they slept, and the early birds would get swarmed by their former neighbors when they went out in the morning to get the mail. Random attacks had erupted all over the island, and no one, not even the police, knew how to respond. Some people went about their daily lives having no clue what was going on until they had seen it on the TV or heard it on the radio. That was how she found out.

She knew something was wrong when her mother didn't call her like she usually did. When she checked the news to see if the phone lines were cut off, she was met with a very disturbing image, one that left her frozen in shock.

It was like something out of a zombie movie; pure pandemonium in the streets, people running in all directions, panicking and screaming with reanimated corpses following close behind as they ran. Every time she turned the channel, she was afraid she'd see one of her family members being attacked or a friend stumbling through the streets all glassy-eyed and craving flesh. Sometimes the news crew was attacked and overwhelmed by zombies during the live broadcast. Even the police force would get overrun. The good quality microphones they used made it possible to hear every single crunching and chomping noise and every gut-wrenching scream. Some news networks had been disconnected, and some radio stations have gone out too. There wasn't even any cell phone service. How the hell was she supposed to call her family and friends and make sure they were okay?

Her fellow Organization members weren't concerned. Not one bit. No zombie could ever reach the World That Never Was. Even if they did, they would never be able to get into the castle. Why? Because the castle floats above the fucking ground. That's why.

It was killing her. Was she going to sit here, in the safest place in the universe, while her family and friends were running for their lives through some God-forsaken zombie-infested island?

The answer is: Hell. No.

She was going to find them and take them somewhere safe; and kill some zombies while she was at it.

She wrote a message on a sticky note and stuck it to the TV (the one place where she knew everyone could see it). She took her backpack and armed herself with her hidden weapons. Then she called her faithful portal-making pet to her side, and it created a portal. Her resolve hardened, she stepped through the portal, ready to face whatever was on the other side.

…

When Nikki arrived at the island, she didn't expect to see her home town in ruins.

It was like a bomb had been set off. Random fires had broken out all over the island, probably from the combination of gasoline leaking from crashed vehicles and sparks from fallen power lines. Blood was splattered all over the street, cars, and the outsides of houses, and decomposing bodies littered the streets.

"_I don't understand.." _She thought. _"It's only been a day.. How could things have gotten so bad so fast?"_

Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard a hissing noise behind her. Recognizing the noise, she turned around just in time to see one of her former school teachers lunging towards her. It tackled her and knocked her to the ground, landing on top of her. As she struggled beneath the zombie, she used her hands to push its face back and keep it from biting her, being careful to keep her hands away from its mouth. She could see some more zombies in the distance, heading in her direction, having been drawn here by the noise.

The clock was ticking, and if she didn't move fast, she would become a human happy meal. Unable to reach into her backpack, she looked around her to find another weapon nearby. She spotted a steel rod by Momo's feet.

"Momo!" She yelled. "Toss me that rod!"

Momo obeyed, grabbing the rod in his hands, and tossing it to her. It landed close enough for her to reach over and grab it, but this zombie was stronger than she thought and she needed both hands to keep it at bay. With more zombies approaching, there was no time to find another weapon. Unsure of how the virus would affect Momo, she ordered him to hide as she decided to take a shot and reach for the rod. The zombie hissed and groaned, pushing itself forward when Nikki removed one of her hands from its face to reach for the rod. She could feel its hot, rotten breath on her face as it got closer, and suddenly she found herself staring down its throat. Her fingers brushed against the rod, and she frantically moved to grab it as she heard the groans from the other zombies getting closer. After scrambling for a few more seconds, she finally had the rod within her reach.

She grasped the rod in a firm grip and raised it as she used her other hand to push the zombie's head back as far as she could. "GET THE _FUCK_ _**OFF OF ME**_!"

She jammed the rod into the side of the zombie's head, splattering its jelly-like blood across the pavement. When its body went limp, she pushed it off of her, quickly getting up on her feet. She rushed at the small group of zombies that were brought there by the sound of her previous struggle, bashing their heads in with the rod. When they went down, she beat their heads in until they were reduced to a bloody pulp. When she was done, she panted heavily.

"I'll never get anywhere if this is all I have.." She said, referring to the rod, as Momo left his hiding place to stand by her side. "Come on, Momo. It's time to go shopping."

…

…


	2. Chapter 1

**Banshee: All right! Chapter 1 is here!**

**Disclaimer: I only own my OCs and the plot.**

* * *

Chapter One

* * *

…

- Roxas' POV -

…

A week ago, we never would have guessed that something like this would happen.

It was just an ordinary day. We figured Nikki was visiting her mom again, so Axel and I had settled down in the living room with a bowl of popcorn to watch a new episode of _Bleach_. Fifteen minutes into the show, Axel decided to channel surf to pass the time, and that's how we found out about what was happening at the islands. Nikki's hometown was infested with zombies, and Nikki was nowhere to be found. I moved closer to the television to get a closer look at the shots of the crowd, to see if I could spot her, when I found a sticky note on the floor, written in Nikki's handwriting.

The note read:

"_Going to save family and friends. Don't know when I'll be back. Unless you're going to help me, STAY THE FUCK OUT OF MY WAY!"_

_- Sincerely, Nikki (a.k.a. Number XIV)_

That was a week ago - six days, do be exact, and in those six days we haven't heard from her. She took Momo with her, and without him there was no way to track her down - well… there were the Dusks, but we weren't sure how the virus would affect them. Besides, they're dumb as posts and probably couldn't even tell the difference between a zombie and an actual living human; heck, they can't even tell the difference between a photo and the real thing.

Ever since Nikki left, Axel's been a nervous wreck. You would be too if your girlfriend decided to throw herself into a zombie-infested area and there was no way to contact her; the phones were down anyway, but it would have been okay if she relayed her messages through Momo… which she hasn't.

We tried to talk Xemnas into letting us look for her, but he wouldn't let us; something about not knowing how the virus would affect Nobodies or something like that. Along with that, he said we would just be wasting time looking for someone that was probably already dead. I know it sounds cruel for him to say things like that, but he's a Nobody with no emotion. What are you gonna do?

We were all sitting around the table wondering what had happened to her. We were all uneasy; Axel had a severe case of nervous knee, Demyx was chewing on his nails, Zexion didn't show any physical signs of nervousness, and I was twiddling my fingers.

"It's been six days and we still haven't heard from Nikki…"Axel mumbled to himself, his eye twitching.

"You don't think she… you know…" Demyx hesitated to say the next word, "_died_, do you?"

"She wouldn't put herself in the middle of a zombie infestation without knowing how to handle herself." Zexion reasoned. "If anything, _she's_ the one killing _them_."

"Zexion's got a point." I agreed.

Axel growled in frustration and stood up. "That's it! I don't care what Xemnas says! I can't sit here anymore!" He exclaimed.

"A-Axel! Where are you going?" I asked as he made a portal.

"Where do you think I'm going?" He exclaimed. "I'm going to find my girlfriend!"

"She's not going to come back without her family, Axel." Said Zexion. "She's made it crystal clear that she's not coming back until she finds them and makes sure they're safe, and she'll strike down anyone that tries to stop her."

"Who said I was going to stop her? I just want to find her and make sure she's okay."

"You're not going out there alone. I'll go with you." I proclaimed.

"I'll go too." Zexion said.

"Me too." Said Demyx.

"I thought you were afraid of zombies, Demyx." I said.

"I am, but… Nikki scares me more, and I don't want her to come back and haunt me if anything happens to her.."

I nodded. "Fair enough."

"Enough chatter. Let's get moving." Axel ordered.

"Who do you think you're talking to?" Zexion grumbled dejectedly. "You can't order me around! I'm ranked higher than you!"

Axel grabbed him by his collar. "Shut up and get in the portal, Princess." He growled, pushing him into the portal.

Axel stepped into the portal next and I followed suit, pushing a crying Demyx from behind.

…

- Later, at the Main Island -

- Axel's POV -

…

At first we didn't know where to go. The island looked like a war zone. How anybody could find their way in a mess like this was beyond me.

Nikki has a lot of friends in the area, and she could be looking for any one of them. From what I knew, her father keeps a few guns in his house, so at least we could rule out her parents for the time being.

Separating was definitely not a good idea, so we stuck together.

As we walked down the street, we noticed a steel rod laying in the road, with several dead bodies sprawled out on the pavement. The bodies were obviously zombies, and it looked like whoever killed them had bashed their heads in to the point where they became a bloody mess. The instrument used to kill them: the rod. But as far as who used it, we had no idea. Thinking it would come in handy in the future, we took the steel rod with us.

"Jeez.. Looks like a bomb went off here.." I muttered after observing our surroundings; which literally looked like somebody dropped a bomb here.

"A zombie apocalypse will do that." Roxas deadpanned.

We passed by a small string of stores, and Roxas stopped when he saw something in one of said stores. He rushed inside, and came out with a pile of blue fabric; Nikki's clothes. She must have changed her outfit so she could be more inconspicuous.

So far, we were on the right track… or so we thought.

After we found her clothes, it was like we hit a dead end. There was no sign of her anywhere. It was like she disappeared off the face of the earth. We would have stopped and asked somebody if they had seen her, but there was no one around to ask. Aside from some dead bodies, there wasn't a human being in sight.

"Hey, there's somebody over there." Demyx said, pointing to a man standing in the street. "Maybe he's seen Nikki."

"Demyx, I don't think you should-" Zexion warned.

But it was too late. Before he could even finish his sentence, Demyx went over to the man.

"Hey, mister!" He called out.

We followed him as he approached the man. At first glance, he looked like some drunk homeless guy. His clothes were tattered and dirty, his skin was pale, and he stood there with a blank expression as his mouth hung open. There was blood on his clothes, but we didn't think anything of it at the moment. I noticed that his eyes were glassy.

"Does this guy smoke pot?" I asked, after giving him a look over. "His eyes are glassy as fuck.."

"Are you sure he's not a zombie? They have glassy eyes." Said Roxas.

"So do potheads."

Roxas gave me a look. "I doubt this guy's on pot.."

"Yeah he is."

"No he's not."

"Are we really doing this? _Really_?" Zexion said, sighing exasperatedly at our argument.

"Prove he's not a pothead, then." I dared him.

He gave me a look, shook his head, and sighed, "Okay.."

Roxas picked up a sharp steel rod that we found earlier and jammed it into the man's chest. Then he took the rod out and stabbed him in the stomach and leg (both times hitting him in a major artery), and used his foot to kick the man to the ground. He landed on the ground, and wasn't moving. I figured he was dead; who could survive those kinds of injuries, anyway? The blood that oozed out of the wounds wasn't normal. It looked almost like jelly.

I crossed my arms and raised my eyebrow skeptically. "You hit him in the vitals. There's no way that guy's still alive."

"Just watch."

There was a groan, and I was effectively proven wrong when the man stumbled to his feet. It was as if those hits didn't affect him at all.

"Still think he's a pothead?" Roxas asked in a matter-of-factly tone.

Then it clicked.

My eyes widened. "… Oh shit, he's a-"

"Whoa, dude!" Demyx exclaimed as the man lunged towards him.

"Zombie!"

The nocturne was on the ground with the zombie on top of him, using both hands to hold it back as it clawed at him and tried to bite him. Zexion and I rushed over and grabbed the zombie by the back of its shirt, because we didn't want to touch its bloody, clammy dead flesh, and tried to pull it off of him. This zombie was one persistent son-of-a-bitch.

"Get this psycho off me, man!" He yelled.

"Don't let him bite you, Demyx!" I shouted. "Hold him back!"

"I'm trying!"

Roxas took the rod and slammed it into the side of the zombies head, knocking it off of Demyx. The zombie skidded across the pavement, leaving a trail of blood as its skin was scraped off.

".. Is he dead - you know, for real this time?" He asked as he hurried to his feet, dusting the dirt off his pants.

"He's not getting back up, so I'm guessing he's dead." I said.

The zombie wasn't moving, but that wasn't enough for Roxas. He walked up and delivered a kick hard enough to knock its head off. There was a sickening 'snap' as the head detached from the body. The head was sent flying a few feet before it hit the ground, bouncing off the pavement three times before stopping.

"Roxas!" I exclaimed. "What the hell'd you do that for? The guy's dead!"

"Doubletap." He said.

I raised an eyebrow. "What the fuck does 'doubletap' mean?"

"Haven't you guys ever heard of the 'Rules of Survival?'"

"Nope." I said.

Demyx shook his head. "No clue."

"If you guys were left alone, you'd be dead in five minutes…" Roxas deadpanned.

"I'd hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I think your little 'performance' has caught the attention of every zombie within a two block radius.." Zexion pointed out as he gestured to the dozen other zombies that were approaching.

They were stumbling out of alleyways and buildings and into the streets, their arms outstretched towards us as they groaned.

"What do we do now?" Demyx asked.

"I got an idea…" I said. Then I yelled, "_**RUN**_!"

So we ran. Yeah, I know, we could have used a portal, but we didn't want to risk any of the zombies following us. So that's why we're running.

Once we ditched one group, we'd bump right into another one. Before we knew it, he had an entire horde of zombies chasing after us. We were thankful that they were the slow kind, and not the kind from the remake of _Dawn of the Dead _because if they were we'd be fucked with a capital 'F.'

Eventually, we ran out of places to run. We had an army of zombies in front of us, and the ocean at our backs.

"Oh great!" Roxas yelled. "There's no way out!"

"Can't we just use a portal?" Demyx asked.

"I'm not leaving without my girlfriend!" I shouted. "Out of the way! I'll burn a path through these fuckers!"

I snapped my fingers, and the horde was suddenly engulfed in flames. It wasn't affecting them that much because they were still reaching for us even as they were being burned. Wanting to finish them off quickly, I upped the temperature. The flames grew more intense, and the zombies were burned to the point where their bodies crumbled. In seconds, they were reduced to dust, ash, and bones. There were some stragglers remaining, but they were crippled and not much of a threat anymore.

"That takes care of them." I proclaimed.

"But there's still more coming." Roxas said, pointing to another group.

"Then I'll torch them too. I'm gonna find my girlfriend, and I'll cut down every single one of these fuckers until I do!"

…

- Meanwhile -

- Normal POV -

…

Halfway across town, two figures were scouring the wreckage of an abandoned house to search for survivors.

Racing helmets covered their faces (one wore a helmet with a hot rod flame decal and a red visor, and the other wore one with a tribal tattoo decal with a blue visor), and they wore dark clothes so they could hide in the shadows. For now, I'm going to refer to them as 'Red' and 'Blue.'

As they searched through the house, a bright yellow light caught their attention as they looked towards the sea. They could see the bright orangey-yellow flame as it suddenly appeared out of nowhere, the light reflecting off the visors of their helmets.

As quickly as it had came, the giant flame vanished.

"Did you see that?" Asked Red.

Blue nodded. "Yeah I saw it."

"What do you think it was?"

"I don't know.." Blue shrugged. "We'll investigate that fire after we finish searching this house."

…

…


End file.
